Until twenty years ago, Indonesian artists had access to a very limited visual world: that of Indonesia and its traditions as well as that of the art books available at the local art schools. And suddenly, the digitalization and the internet were there, for everyone to see and learn. Faraway lands and icons suddenly became images of everyday life. Better, the digital world provided new techniques of duplication and interpretation of reality.

Art Exhibition at The Oberoi, Bali.From October 29 to December 21, 2018

It is not an unimportant decision for an artist to try to make his or her mark in the informal side. Because, once you make your choice, not only are you exposed to sneer by ordinary folk –who say you cannot paint—but you have also to demonstrate that you have something to say.You cannot hide anymore behind the geometrization of objects nor even behind abstract color geometrical forms for their own sake, nor can you pretend to reveal the structure of your subconscious like action painter are doing with their repetitive color swabs over the canvas.

There are artists that are easy to write about. For some, their work is narrative, and you can write a few pages about it. For other ones, it their style or manner that present interesting features. There is similarly no problem writing about them. A pinch of theory of color here. A whiff of post-modern discourse there, and you do have your curatorial piece.

Nasirun occupies a place of his own in the Indonesian art world. When one first sees his paintings, one cannot be indifferent: here is an artist who has the rarest and most valued quality of all; he has a ʺworld of his ownʺ--shown in a feat of color a feast of color. The narrative is there, with the fantastic.

When one sees Adriaan Palar’s paintings, what does one think about?Mondrian and De Stijl of course, but with a difference. It is not color or Nature in themselves, reduced to their basic geometrical structures, as in Mondrian’s works, that are being investigated. It is instead Indonesian color, and Indonesian nature.

Wirantawan's imageries have their origin in trivial things found everywhere around the artist. Sunrays, water, fire, burning incense or cigarette that brings forth smoke, ash, dust, coarse and fine messages, and the ripple resulted when something plunge into the water, are among the everyday objects and events that inspire Wirantawan and fuel his artistic imagination.

The art historian and critic Sanento Yuliman explains the term 'abstract' as " the style of paint that does not display the form we recognize as the kind of thing or pattern we see in the reality around us . . . does not describe objects (hence called 'non-objective abstracts) or paint figures (hence called' non-figurative abstract ') ".

Life is too short and we have to run. I am running to catch up dots, lines, colours, and shapes. I grab the lines everywhere, every time, in every condition, in any place. From east to west, south to north. No doubt, in my inner feelings. Inside of me. A journey without border. Boundless Voyage. Wild, strong, free and expressive, that was the basic characteristics that describe who I am.

When you write about art, the artwork you are dealing with, sometimes is so banal that the writing has to be good to save it.Everything is good in the matter. You can talk about something else, anything but art: the artist has exhibited abroad or he insults people in his installations, etc.So I raise a question. What about artist who just strike you right away as good? Excessive subjectivity of the art critic, will say the critic’s critics. Yes, of course, but if you happen to be, like me, someone whose pen is respected in the art world. What do you do?